The present invention is directed to an apparatus for fixing ball marks that readily occur on golf greens during normal play on a typical golf course.
Ball marks occur as a result of a player attempting to drive his or her ball onto the green during play on a short hole or attempting a chip shot onto the green after a number of strokes on a long hole. Ball marks are basically indentations in the surface of a golf green resulting from the ball landing on the golf green with sufficient force to locally compress the turf and/or soil underneath the turf on impact.
There exists a number of conventional devices or apparatus for fixing ball marks. One such apparatus is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,567,264 to G. L. Baber comprising a plurality of radially extending blades pivotably mounted to a center hub and simultaneously activated through a linkage mechanism upon pressing down on a handle of the apparatus moving the tips of the blades radially inwardly and downwardly. This movement of the blades tend to fill in the ball mark by moving surrounding turf and soil radially inwardly into the region of the ball mark. Another conventional device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,168,150 to Kappler having a plurality of radially inwardly moving fingers actuated by a camming mechanism upon pressing the handle of the device downwardly to move turf and soil radially inwardly into the region of the ball mark for leveling off the indentation in the golf green.
Both of the above referred to conventional apparatus have substantially complicated mechanisms to actuate blade tips and/or fingers for movement radially inwardly to dislodge the turf and soil from around the region of the ball mark, into the region of the ball mark, so as to level off the indentation in the golf green. The present invention utilizes a more simple mechanism for achieving the same result of filling in the indentation of the ball mark in the golf green. The simplicity of design provides a substantially more durable and reliable tool that is less susceptible to damage during a long work life as is typical during use by a golf green grounds keeper. Further, the present apparatus functions somewhat differently than the above referred to conventional apparatus in that the present invention displaces a patch of turf and soil into the location of the ball mark indentation as opposed to a plurality of small areas of turf and soil positioned inwardly of the blade tips and/or fingertips of the above referred to conventional apparatus.
Movement of the blade tips or fingertips of the prior art devices tend to cut or tear through the turf and soil as opposed to the present apparatus that moves an interconnected patch(es) of turf and soil as a unit preventing substantial root and/or damage to the grass blades of the turf.